I also got some improvement by replacing the thermostat at about the 10 year mark. The original may have gotten “tired” and didn’t let teh engine get fully to normal op temp.

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Prost!

Put a quart of trans fluid in the oil. Run it for a few minutes and change tge oil. It’ll clean that sludge up

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1993 e300
1995 e320
1994 e320
2006 s500 4matic
2004 Jeep wj overland
2001 Ducati 748
2004 Honda shadow aero

on my E320, this was normal if I didnt drive it for at least 30 minutes and I live in TX.

I have no empirical evidence of reducing this activity, but I did notice that this was a bit reduced when I resealed the breather caps on both valve covers - the passenger side one with the smaller breather hole clogs up completely and you will also see a similar mess in that breather cap usually accompanied by that cap leaking. The driver side cap with the larger hoses is usually very clean.

I used to fill it with 5w40 rotella or mobil1 0w40 and change it at 12000 miles along with a fleece type filter element bought from advance auto parts. The engine was fit as a horse till the day hurricane harvey claimed it.

btw - 2001 model year E320 would be a W210 chassis, I recall all W210 had a full dipstick in their engines, how come you only have the little sealed cap?

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2012 BMW X5 (Beef + Granite suspension model)

1995 E300D - The original humming machine (consumed by Flood 2017)
2000 E320 - The evolution (consumed by flood 2017)

Follow the crankcase ventilation path. Air entering the crankcase will keep that area cleaner and the air out area will be sludged up, this is typical for any engine especially a V configuration.

Yeah you are right, the passenger side is ported to manifold vacuum.

OTOH Really funny ones are the toyota 2AZ where some mechanics break/cut the ventilation baffle under the oil fill cap (youtube videos of this exist too) - and wonder why its sludging up in the lower end. Without the baffle guide air goes in from one side of the valve cover, makes a U turn and out the back of it.

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2012 BMW X5 (Beef + Granite suspension model)

1995 E300D - The original humming machine (consumed by Flood 2017)
2000 E320 - The evolution (consumed by flood 2017)

Thanks for all the helpful advice. I found a bit more about this car earlier today. My friend has owned the car for 4-5 years and never changed the oil, air filters or coolant. He just added to what was already in there when needed. In his mind that is an oil change lol.

An "All coolant compatible" type of antifreeze has been used to top off what I have to assume was originally the MB light yellow stuff. The coolant tank has what looks like that yellow/green color which conventional coolants are.

For motor oil, name a brand and/or viscosity...and I'd bet it has been used for topping off. There was a partially used "Trop Arctic" 10w40 quart bottle and an unopened "SuperTech" 5w20? bottle in the trunk.

So in the next few days, I'm thinking an oil/filter change, air filter, coolant flush, and brake fluid change is in order. Strangely enough the transmission fluid looks completely fine and doesn't smell off.

I should have checked when the car was here...but does the E320 use the same oil filter cap tool as my S550?

Thanks again...

__________________
Lance Allison
[email protected]

Current:
11 MB S550 4Matic, 55k miles, Designo Black/Black
14 Ford F150 XLT Lariat Crew, 73k miles, 5.0
Coyote V8 4x4. Black/tan.
09 GMC Envoy Denali, 5.3 V8, 4x4 SWB. 38k miles,
Jewel Red/Med Gray.

Gone:
87 MB 300SDL, 320k miles, Astral Silver/Blue.
98 VW Jetta TDI, 488k miles, Classic Green/Gray.
85 Olds 98 Brougham FWD, 4.3 DIESEL V6, 80k
miles, 3x Gray.

MBCA Member, Chicago Region

NNNnnnnooo.. . . Regular oil is just fine. Keep ATF in the transmission and out of the gas tank / engine oil.

Moisture rises and saturates oil with water generating the glop. For the most part, the lower parts of the engine are clean.

I’ve never had a problem., never had a sludge problem either

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1993 e300
1995 e320
1994 e320
2006 s500 4matic
2004 Jeep wj overland
2001 Ducati 748
2004 Honda shadow aero

Four + decades of building / repairing engines says otherwise.

Good oil changed regularly won't cause sludge to begin with. For cars with a carburetor, 3 / 4 K on regular oil is about the limit, using synthetic here is a waste because poor fuel control contaminates the oil. I run synthetic in non turbo fuel injected cars to 8 / 10 K due to tighter fuel control keeping oil cleaner.